Catch Me If You Can (12A)

THE TRUE story of a teenage conman who scammed $2.5 million and became one of America's most wanted criminals appearing on the FBI's hit list, is brought to life in this wonderful slick black comedy by Steven Spielberg.

Just when Leonardo DiCaprio seemed to be going the same way as the Titanic, he resurfaces in two very good films in the space of a month, directed by two of America's finest visionaries (he stars in Martin Scorsese's flawed masterpiece the Gangs of New York).

DiCaprio plays Frank Abagnale Junior, a suave and highly successful con merchant who was on the run for five years after successfully conning Pan American airlines by forging their pay cheques while impersonating a pilot, and subsequently passing himself off as a house doctor and a prosecuting lawyer.

Frank enjoys a champagne lifestyle, gets to meet beautiful air hostesses, stays at the plushest hotels and can afford the best tailor in town.

There is a great scene where we see Frank picking up tips on how to be cool from watching Sean Connery playing James Bond in Goldfinger.

However his life is far from simple.

The father he deeply loves, Frank Senior, (played in a typically outstanding performance from Christopher Walken) is a broken man.

He is up to his neck in debt, being squeezed dry by the Internal Revenue Service and left to rot by his unfaithful French wife who shacks up with one of his rich friends.

So Frank Junior, for all his wealth and exciting lifestyle, is an intensely lonely man who is constantly on the run.

Hot on his trail is CIA agent Carl Hanratty, played in a fine understated performance by Tom Hanks, who is himself a man with a fractured life.

The more he studies Frank, the more he realises the similarities between them. Both are professionals dedicated to their art but experiencing an empty existence.

Catch Me If You Can is exhilarating entertainment.

Mono rating: 9 out of 10

Now showing at the UGC Cinemas in Newport and Cardiff